Father of Mine
by NeverMineToHold
Summary: Loki is never defenseless, even when the stars themselves conspire to rob him of his magic - and the Avengers will learn that lesson right now... POV: Tony Stark


Title: "Father of Mine"

Status: OneShot; complete

Fandom: The Avengers (Movie)

Characters: Loki, the (not so fully assembled) Avengers and... - does the title suggest someone else...?

Disclaimer: The Avengers belong to Marvel.

Rating: T

Genre: AU

Warnings: unbeta'ed; I'm messing with you...

Summary: Loki is never defenseless, all he needs he carries with him, metaphorically speaking, even when the stars themselves conspire to rob him of his magic - and the Avengers will learn that lesson right now...

Father of Mine

This time Thor didn't pull his punches: Mjölnir smashed against Loki's temple with a sickening crunch. The younger god was send flying, smashing straight through a department store. Glass and concrete scattered everywhere, glowing white with the hammers electricity. The horizontal flow of lightning before the night sky burned itself into retinas.

Like a cannon ball Loki emerged on the other side of the building and it took the massive steel beam of a skyscraper to stop him.

Iron Man curved over the department store's roof in time to see Loki drop down in a cloud of dust. His ridiculous helmet cracked open like a nutshell and fell to the ground with a hollow _clank,_ its golden antlers in pieces. Tony was close enough to see the bright blue blood that stained Loki's hair.

"Wow!" he commented, dutifully impressed, yet wary. He kept his distance, opting to hover some meters away. "This is almost too easy."

He still hated all that fancy talk about magic – what his sensors couldn't pick up had no right to exist! - but when the mumbo jumbo presented an opportunity like this one on a silver platter, Tony was alright with joining in on the fun. There was no better stress relief than ripping Loki a new one – and when the stars themselves lined up to seal the bastards Harry Potter tricks, who was Tony Stark to complain?

(Okay, he _had_ complained, long and eloquent and with shiny, polished arguments, but that was expected, right?)

"Sir, it might be a good idea to finish this now, while the prototype is running without cascade failures," JARVIS commented dryly.

"Aw, still upset that I never listen to you?"

"No Sir, as always I defer to your greater wisdom," the A.I.'s voice dripped acid.

"Ouch! I _really_ need to erase that 'deadpan snarker' code line of yours," Tony commented, but swept down, repulsors ready to deliver the finishing blow. - Alternately, he was prepared to restrain Thor, who looked ready to actually kill his little brother, which could only end in thunderstorms of biblical proportions when the Asgardian came back to his senses.

He had no chance to do either: the Hulk dropped literally out of the blue sky, smashing a crater into the street on landing; the shock wave rattling parked cars. He roared in anger and Tony had to swerve wildly to avoid being batted aside like a giant mosquito and ending up as a red smear on a window.

Quick maneuvers in an Iron Man suit with huge teething troubles weren't such a bright idea. Tony got that valuable life lesson a second time as the HUD flashed red, went dark and he found himself hugging the crushed remains of a car roof. He struggled for a moment, then his head dropped down with a loud _thunk _of defeat.

"Shit."

Thus trapped under the weight of his own suit, Tony found himself reduced to a spectator of the events that unfolded before him:

Banner's testosterone bursting alter ego loomed over the fallen god, but didn't attack immediately. Instead the Hulk watched with childlike curiosity as Loki's skin turned from milky white to blue, interrupted by darker lines that reminded Tony of old runes he had seen at an excavation site in Europe.

Tony suspected his head had connected too often with hard materials recently because his first association was 'smurf', followed by 'blue and green go nice together' before 'Jotun' (finally!) crossed his mind.

All that had happened within two minutes tops, but time was suddenly a tricky concept: Thor came closer, running as if under water, shouting something no one heard and then Loki looked up. Not exactly an impressive move, in Tony's humble opinion, but he felt the icy cold of foreboding rushing through him.

Loki's blood-red eyes connected with the Hulk's green ones and his pale lips moved – Tony managed to read two words: 'Know me.'

Then Thor was upon _them_, and then literally upon _Tony_, crashing into him, while Mjölnir clattered down the street. The last thing Tony saw was the Hulk, crouching protectively over Loki and Thor's red cape that slowly fluttered down to cover his helmet – then nothing.

What neither Tony Stark nor Thor did get to witness was how the Hulk whined mournfully, his big finger tracing the blood that ran down from Loki's temple, before he picked the god up with a gentleness no one would have expected from him.

Carried in the crook of Hulk's arm like a delicate porcelain doll, Loki still managed to look his haughty self; one blue hand patting the Hulks shoulder with absent-minded familiarity to pacify his distressed roars.

"Daddy will be fine. Now be quiet and let me think."

[_Know me and heed my will, for I am the mother of monsters._]

End


End file.
